Teens today have never known a world where HIV was a certain death sentence. They missed the “plague years” of AIDS—the confusion, the pop-cultural discussions, the general feeling of hopelessness regarding the disease. This is sometimes referred to as “historical privilege.” It means that through no fault of their…

In 2012, the FDA approved Truvada as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV. An antiretroviral drug used to treat HIV (in combination with other drugs) to the point of suppressing viral loads to undetectable levels in the bloodstream of HIV-positive individuals, Truvada was discovered to be effective in preventing…

It appears we're on the cusp of a major breakthrough in the prevention of HIV/AIDS. The FDA said yesterday that Truvada, a drug currently used to treat patients with HIV, appears to be effective at preventing HIV infection in healthy people. This would be the first drug of its kind and would obviously have a huge…

AIDS prevention has been on a sort of rollercoaster in the past year or so, with exciting progress followed quickly by disappointing results. The drug Truvada showed promise in blocking transmission of the virus, but then an African trial had to be stopped because the drug wasn't protecting the women who took it. Now,…

Some hopeful news in the battle against HIV: a daily pill shows promise in preventing transmission of the virus. So much promise, in fact, that scientists stopped the trial so they could start giving the pills to the control group as well.